Nice shot: Check out this strangely passive-aggressive Mothers Day card

This Mothers Day card was on sale at Porter Square Books last week. It’s understandable why it remained on racks that had been fairly well picked over: It reads like at best a passive-aggressive, backhanded compliment – “Happy Mothers Day,” it says, “As moms go, you’re the greatest!” – to the extent that the exclamation mark looks like an afterthought.

“Dear mom,” goes the underlying message of the card. “As your people go, you’re the best of a bad lot. I couldn’t have asked for a more tolerable mom to put up with.”

This is ridiculous, of course. First, it’s totally ist. (It’s not racist or sexist or ageist, but it definitely comes off as ist.) Moms are a superlative people, on the whole, and this kind of card would be better applied to a group with a spottier overall record, like life coaches or pet groomers.